SHAH ALAM 23 May – The government has been successful in its National Transformation Programme (NTP) despite allegations from certain segments of the community claims that Malaysia is on the verge of bankruptcy.
The Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak said the success of Malaysia is not a rhetoric, creation or “self-happiness” stories but based on facts and figures that have been audited by international companies.
“No government in the world is as transparent and disciplined as Malaysia.
“As a result, the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) grows by an average of 5.1 percent since the year 2010, that is twice the world’s economic growth,” Najib said in his speech at the Annual Report of the National Transformation Programme held at Dewan Agung Tuanku Canselor, UiTM yesterday.
The government, he said, has also taken bold steps to become a high-income nation. It has also introduced the Goods and Services Tax (GST) besides rationalising subsidies.
Najib has also stressed, the opposition leaders pledging that GST would be scrapped off if they were in power (government) is merely baseless facts and not a living reality.
“Today GST gives big returns to the country. Malaysia is also witnessing an economic growth of 5.6 percent in the first quarter of 2017. This has proven that criticisms of some groups were wrong,” he stressed.
The government is consistently helping the poor. The rate of poverty was 3.8 percent in 2009 and in 2014 has shrunk to 0.6 percent. However, by September this year, new statistics show that the figure will be much smaller, he added.
The Prime Minister also said that 69 percent that is about 2.26 million new jobs out of 3.3 million jobs have been created now.
“The NTP has also focused on the infrastructure projects. It includes the extension of Light Railway Transit (LRT) services in Klang Valley. However, the railway lines from Kuala Lumpur to Singapore that takes only 90 minutes journey will be materialised soon, he said.
He also reported that the Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) phase one has started its operation on 16 December 2016 that was much earlier than its date of completion, without affecting its quality.
For the second phase which covers 51 kilometres from Sungai Buloh to Kajang, it will start its operation in July. Besides that, the rural development that includes uplifting the quality of roads from 2010 to 2016 has witnessed the distance of 6,042 kilometres (equivalent to the distant from Kuala Lumpur to Riyadh) has been built.
In 2013, he said, the government has made a decision that 30 percent females should be on the board of decision and now it has reached 35.8 percent. In the first 100 listed private companies, there are about 16.8 percent females that sit on the board of directors and 26.7 percent in the decision-making group.
He also mentioned the pre- school enrolment that was 67 percent in 2009 has increased to 85 percent in 2016. The numbers will reach 100 percent in 2020.-Malaysia World News
